"Public file sharing has taken a few on the chin recently focusing on BitTorrent. Regardless of these and future RIAA/MPAA efforts, filesharing will never, ever end. Where's the next pointless strike going to be?"
"As the demand for spectrum for new services increases, spectrum used by broadcasters is being considered for sharing by both licensed and unlicensed services. The threats in 2004 are similar to those in 2003, except that this year many of the potential threats became more real "
"2004 was a landmark year for broadband, from the bells finally moving on their fiber deployment plans, to broadband supposedly passing dial-up as the preferred method of internet connectivity. AOL tried to get a handle on its identity crisis, while BPL supporters and opponents duked it out. "
High court to hear music file-sharing dispute The Supreme Court has decided to consider if online file-sharing services Grokster and StreamCast Networks may be held responsible for their customers' online swapping of copyrighted songs and movies. Justices will review a lower ruling in favor of the peer-to-peer services, which came as a blow to recording companies and movie studios. Arguments are expected in the spring, with a ruling by July. The appeal by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and other entertainment companies said that the file sharing is "inflicting catastrophic, multibillion dollar harm on petitioners that cannot be redressed through lawsuits against the millions of direct infringers using those services." Grokster and StreamCast say once the software has been downloaded by users, they have no involvement in, nor ability to control how it is used. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in August that file-sharing services were no t responsible because they don't have central servers pointing users to copyright material. The court said the firms simply provide software that lets individual users share information over the Internet, regardless of whether that shared information is copyrighted.
There is a built-in anomaly in the new Arbitron-geographical radio market definition. For the purposes of establishing station counts in a given market, the brand new low power FM class of stations is not in the mix. They do not count. However, we noticed the presence of WMUC-FM College Park MD on the BIA Washington DC market list, all nine watts of it. The antenna is equally impressive, at about three feet above average terrain. In short, the University of Maryland station barely gets out of the Student Union, much less participating in the market in general. We asked the FCC Media Bureau about this, and they indicated that there are only about six or so stations sharing the general technical parameters of WMUC. And in most cases, the presence of one of these in a market is unlikely to provide the tipping point between one ownership tier and another - - this is certainly the case with WMUC, which is one of 63 stations list ed under Washington the last time we checked the BIA report. DC is an eight-station tier whether WMUC is in the mix or not. However, there are far more stations near the 100 watt threshold which also applies to LPFMs, however. So these stations count, even though they are basically just like LPFMs, which don't. The Media Bureau told RBR that should a low-powered but fully-licensed FM station exist right on the cusp of a tier border in a market of interest, its presence may be brought to the attention of the Commission and arguments made as to whether it should be included in the count or tossed out.
Religious broadcasters qualify for educational categorySatellite multichannel video program distributors (MVPD) are supposed to assure that 4% of the programming they carry is noncommercial and educational. The FCC has ruled that religious broadcasters may qualify to be counted toward meeting that obligation. A complaint was filed by The Secular Coalition for America, which felt that DirecTV was both counting noncommercial religious channels toward the 4% requirement and not explaining why. The Commission said that the rules "...do not suggest or provide that a programmer offering programming of a religious nature should be disqualified from access to reserved channels if it otherwise meets the set-aside qualifications." It goes on to explain that decisions on how to allocate the channel usage are entirely the MVPDs - - there is nothing in the rules stipulating otherwise. As for not providing an explanation as to why certain channels were left out, the FCC noted that such an explanation is required but it need only be of the briefest nature, and that DirecTV had indeed provided it. The turndown phrase provided by DirecTV, found to fulfill its requirements, was "capacity full."
"The title of the four-disc Left of the Dial can be dismissed as harmless nostalgia, but you'd still have to be a real masochist to indulge yourself in this epic collection of 80s college rock. What a dark time that was in our nation's musical development. Bands slavishly tried to sound like Sonic Youth, the Pixies, the Replacements, Depeche Mode, REM or the Smiths�or, in truly ugly moments of inspiration, some fatal combination thereof. Sometimes they'd toss in some Coltrane."
"David Conger, a disc jockey for the University of Puget Sound�s KUPS (90.1 FM), has been recognized by Collegiate Broadcasters Inc. (CBI), as one of the nation�s best DJs. The national association of college radio and television broadcasters handed out its awards last month at the 2004 National College Media Convention in Nashville, Tenn."
" #6 GRASSY KNOLL & THE MAGIC BULLIT: SHE WOKE UP IN A FRANTIC (Train RECords) -- College radio lives with a band that sounds like a more upbeat Velvet Underground -- sarcasm, irony, deadpan anguish and uplift; a good erratic beat. GKATMB (the band's charming acronym) has them all. A nod, too, to producer Andy Magoffin for getting all the Magic and the bullets onto the record. "
"Local band Corkskrew have concluded a promotional deal in America that will land tracks from the band's latest album No Ordinary Maybe on the airwaves of hundreds of radio stations in the United States. The deal was signed with Minnesota-based promotional company Tinderbox Music.
This is the second time that Corkskrew have signed a promotional deal in America. As a result of the first deal, tracks from the band's debut CD Micromania were aired in over 100 stations all over America, especially college radio stations. College radios are considered to be the launching pad of emerging acts. "
